AN: All right, now we're getting into the meat and bones of the story. Sorry that this is more telling than showing, but I promise that it'll be less of that as the story goes on. Just need to iron out the kinks of what everyone has been doing the past few months since the prologue that's all. Again, apologies if anyone seems out of character here.

I also want to add that since this fic is just an alternate version of what Season One of the show could've been like, that means I'm going to keep up with the continuity of that season. So, for example, Kankrelats were referred to as Roachsters, there will no William or Hiroki (as both were introduced in Season Two), Odd still has his Future Flash ability on Lyoko, and there may or may not be an appearance by Franz Hopper, or at least a reference to him, later on in the story. I just want to clear that up before I get beaten over the head!

I also want to give shout-outs to Knux27 and Nope for reviewing and giving me their opinion of the prologue of the story so far! Thank you guys!

Chapter One: The Difference Between Medicine and Poison

Well don't call me by my full name,
And all this is temporary.
It feels much better to know that you won't feel a thing.
Well don't talk about it;
Write it down but don't ask for help.
I can't be honest with even myself.
Did you ever wish you were somebody else?

- Circa Survive, "The Difference Between Medicine and Poison Is the Dose"

The alarm blared loudly out into the room for quite some time - at least five minutes, before Odd decided that he had to be the one to turn it off. He's gotten quite good at hearing the alarm going off (and snores a little less nowadays) because he knows Ulrich isn't going to be the one to turn it off.

Odd yawned, rubbing his eyes. Across the room, Ulrich is still bundled underneath his blanket, back facing his roommate. Odd knows that Ulrich is awake. It's become part of their routine for the past three months now. Ulrich would hear the alarm go off, but rather choose to ignore it in favor of staying in bed all day; and Odd, not wanting to draw suspicion, would have to be the one to do it, and would have to be the one to urge Ulrich from bed.

So he did so, by kicking Ulrich in the back, provoking the brown-haired boy to roll over and glare at him. "Come on, get up," said Odd, giving him one last tap with his toes.

Ulrich half-heartedly raised his hand over the covers and waved him off. "You go, I'll be there in five minutes."

"You're going to miss breakfast again, aren't you?"

"Save me a croissant. I said I'll be down in five minutes."

"Fine, but if you don't show, then I'm going to go to the factory really quick so Aelita can have her breakfast."

"Fine, sounds good."

"Actually I forgot. Don't you have to pick up Yumi later?"

Ulrich winced, but slowly began to move out of his bed. "Okay, skip getting me breakfast. Get Aelita hers, and I'll go fetch Yumi."

Odd began rubbing the back of his neck. "Or if you want I can go grab her..."

But Ulrich shook his head. "No Odd, just do what you gotta do, okay?"

"Okay then. I'll see you for math class then."

"Yeah."

Odd couldn't have made a faster exit unless the dorms were on fire. Normally one to stop and enjoy the double servings he would convince Rosa to give him, the last three months saw a slight decline in his usual eating habits. He still ate a lot, there was no doubt about that, but not as much as he used to. During the first month, Odd woke up incredulous that he found he had no appetite at all. At first he thought he was getting sick until the weight of everything really sunk in - Yumi and Jeremie were gone, and it was just he, Ulrich, and Aelita left in the group.

Ulrich was left completely out of commission during the first month, so it was up to Odd to keep the team morale going. It was difficult, especially since Aelita shared Ulrich's sentiments, and was just as despondent (but she tried more than Ulrich did, that Odd had to give her credit for). It was almost like he became the unofficial leader in Jeremie's wake, something that he didn't really want. Odd had no problems barking orders to his two friends when he needed to, especially since they had to continue their fight against Xana, but the position as leader felt like wearing a plastic bag. It was foreign and uncomfortable, and he never forgot that crucial moment when he had strategized an attack that nearly ended with Aelita's demise.

If Ulrich dreamt of regret of failing to save Yumi from falling, then Odd dreamt of when he had ordered Aelita to go on her own to deactivate the tower while he had stayed behind to fight off a pesky Krab. Unfortunately, that decision had led her to being surrounded by several Roachsters and, had Ulrich not virtualized himself in time to save her, then they surely would've lost the fight there. Since then he had promised himself never to send Aelita off on her own towards the towers unless he or Ulrich were there to accompany her. Easier said than done.

Quickly swiping a few croissants, two bananas, and a cup of hot chocolate for Aelita, Odd hurried over to the storage room to use that passage that led to the Factory. When he arrived in the dull green illuminated room, Aelita was already up, typing up some programs into the Supercomputer.

She turned in the chair and gave him a smile. "Oh hello Odd. Ulrich isn't with you?"

"He's busy, you know how it is." Odd reached into his backpack and handed her a croissant, a banana, and her drink that he was careful not to drop along the way. "Here, brought you breakfast."

"Thank you, Odd."

"So what're you working on here?"

Aelita swallowed. "I'm trying to replicate the materialization process. It's not ready yet, but I think I might be close enough."

Odd let out a deflating sigh. That was the big project for the past few months - none of them wanted to truly believe that saving Yumi was out of the question. After all, who was to say that they couldn't try to recover her data while she was still registered in the computer, even if it wasn't the next day? No, that was never a problem with Odd. He was always ready to hear news of Aelita advancing forth with the program.

No, the problem was that it made him remember Jeremie. Though he was never outwardly hostile towards Jeremie like Ulrich was, there was a part in Odd that could never forgive Jeremie for doing what he did that day. It did break his heart a little whenever he saw the young genius wandering on the grounds, looking sullen and remorseful. It took a lot in Odd to refrain from engaging Jeremie in conversation, even to ask him how he was doing, but Ulrich was his best friend and roommate, therefore Odd had to choose him over Jeremie.

"Odd, are you okay?" inquired Aelita, giving him a thoughtful look.

"Uh what? Oh, I, uh, yeah, I'm doing A-okay, princess."

She gave him a knowing smirk, which Odd knew meant that she didn't believe him. "It's okay, Odd. I know you were thinking about him."

Odd kicked at imaginary dirt. "Sometimes I just wonder what Einstein is up to, that's all."

"I haven't heard you call him by that nickname for a while."

"That's because Ulrich isn't here to bash my head in. You won't do that, I hope?"

"No, of course not. I've done what you humans call, umm, is it 'forgive and forget'?"

Odd raised his head, surprised by Aelita's words. After all, she had confided in him many times about how she now felt about Jeremie, and none of those words were anything polite. "Really? You've forgiven him?"

Aelita cringed slightly as she considered what to say next. "Maybe I meant it another way. I haven't completely forgiven him, but... I'm not what you call angry at him anymore."

"Really?"

"I mean what he did was wrong, but the best thing we can do is move forward and continue our fight."

"Wow Aelita, can't say that that was what I was expecting to hear."

"I guess I'm full of surprises, aren't I?" Aelita smiled.

Odd returned the smile, and found it safe to try and lighten the air around them with a joke. "Well then you better tell Ulrich about that. It'd be nice to see him crack a joke now and again, even if his jokes really stink."

"Speaking of Ulrich, is he going to get the Yumi clone?"

That quickly erased Odd's short-lived smile. "Yeah. I told him I could go get her, but he insists he do it. He's only hurting himself doing it."

"Well I might have good news concerning the clone," said Aelita. "While I'm working on the materialization process, I've been tweaking the program Jeremie had left behind when he invented the Yumi clone by having the clone act more like the real Yumi. And I think I might've finally finished it."

"Really? So now we don't have to keep a twenty-four hour eye on the Yumi clone in case it does something stupid?"

"Exactly. I'll need the clone to be here when I do the process, but otherwise I think I may have completed everything that Jeremie had left unfinished."

Odd sighed. "You know, for what he did, Jeremie did help us out a lot with the Yumi clone."

Aelita nodded her head in agreement. "Maybe it was his way of saying sorry."

It had been three months since that day, but Ulrich couldn't stop thinking about it. After all, how could he move on from it? He lost his best friend and was betrayed by another. Every time he fell asleep, Ulrich's mind continued to replay that moment until it had gotten to a point where he had it completely memorized.

The day after had been just as bad. Ulrich was still in the mind set of being unable to accept the fact that what happened had happened, that it wasn't a bad dream that he was going to wake up from any time soon. It was only when Odd pressed him for details on what they were going to do concerning Yumi's parents that Ulrich came back to Earth, and realized that everything did happen - Jeremie did press the buttons that would select Aelita to be materialized rather than use the program to save Yumi.

Though the solution to the issue with Yumi's parents came in the form of Jeremie, Ulrich never wanted to give him credit for it at all. The first day they had to come up with an intricate excuse for Yumi's absence at home (one that ended up requiring Sissi's assistance, and Aelita's skilled programming to be able to install a voice manipulator into the computer so that they could pretend that they were Yumi). After that, Jeremie had come to them with an idea - he had created a prototype Yumi clone. The program for the clone was definitely imperfect, but they had an image of Yumi flesh and blood, right down to the very clothes she wore.

Jeremie gave them the disc for the clone, but Ulrich was absolutely adamant on not allowing him back into the group. Just because Jeremie really helped them out in having to deal with Yumi's parents didn't excuse the fact that this was all his fault in the first place.

So all in all, Ulrich had to only go on one date with Sissi as payment for her covering for Yumi, and they never had to really rely on the voice manipulator except in emergencies. Jeremie never approached them with assistance after that, and for the past three months Aelita had been working on perfecting the clone, using her own knowledge.

Ulrich hated the Yumi clone. Absolutely hated it. If he could, he would've avoided it. The clone was Yumi, but not the real Yumi whom he had come to love. The clone didn't have her fire, her intelligence, her sisterly instinct to watch over the team, or her maturity. It was a blank slate, only designed to fool Yumi's parents until they could find a way to bring Yumi back from the digital sea. And unfortunately, since the clone was as brain dead as Sissi could be (at least in Ulrich's humble opinion), that meant they had to supervise it to make sure it wasn't doing anything out of character. That was why Ulrich began the routine of walking the Yumi clone to school, though he felt ill every time he did it.

He knew he could let Odd walk the Yumi clone to school every now and then, especially when the blonde-haired boy offered to, but Ulrich always refused. It was like some subconscious thing, Ulrich had come to realize. He had failed the real Yumi, so now he had to watch over the clone of Yumi, or something like that. He wasn't paying that much more attention to class than he had before that horrible day, so he could've been mistaken with the whole 'psychological aspect' and was just going insane.

Yeah, going insane, that sounded like it.

When he finally reached the Ishiyama residence, he hit the doorbell twice, and awaited on the steps for the Yumi clone to appear.

It felt like an eternity until the door opened, revealing the clone in all its glory. "Greetings Ulrich Stern," it greeted in a robotic tone, moving past him without even bothering to shut the door.

Ulrich shut the door and raced to catch up with the clone, who was already turning around the corner, not even observing the traffic when it decided to cross the street. Once he finally caught up to the clone, it barely registered his presence, and that was how they continued their walk cycle until they reached the gates of Kadic - walking with unnerving silence.

Once at the gates, Ulrich made the clone face him. "Okay, so what are your classes today?" he asked it, in a tone that was saddled between being dejected and being irritated. He knew it would've been an otherwise silly question to ask (he had Yumi's schedule completely memorized), but he always asked to make sure the clone was aware of its purpose.

As the clone began to rattle off Yumi's schedule, Ulrich felt his cellphone vibrate in his pocket. "Odd?" he asked as he brought the phone to his ear, "what's up?"

"You might want to come over here and fast," said Odd. "I think Aelita's done it."

"It has been proven that sneezing with your eyes open is impossible," the clone spoke, having finished running through real Yumi's complete schedule for the day. "Also the speed of light is rounded to 186,000 miles per second-"

"Ssh!" Ulrich snapped before placing the phone by his ear again. He couldn't have heard Odd say it right - did Aelita actually finish the materialization program? If the Yumi clone hadn't begun its usual chatter of useless information, then he might've caught Odd's bit of information better. "You mean she's finished the materialization program?!" He had to admit that he must've looked like an idea, shouting out loud, but he couldn't contain his growing excitement.

"Uhh, not exactly."

Oh. Dumb! You should've known better, you dummy! Aelita said it would take months for her to finish the program. "Then what?" Ulrich snapped, his good mood suddenly gone.

"Did you also know that if the sun was the size of a beach ball, then Jupiter would be equivalent to the size of a golf ball, and Earth would be the size of a sea?" said the clone, but it went unnoticed.

"The program for the clone. Aelita says that she's completed the program so that the clone won't be as dumb anymore. She wants you to bring it over to the factory ASAP."

"Fine, will do." Sighing, Ulrich pocketed the cell phone. Well, modifying the blueprints of the clone's program to make it a more self-sufficient being wasn't a bad idea, and as long as he didn't have to worry about the clone walking into traffic, then he would be okay with it.

"And then at five p.m. I must be home to eat organic materials with my parental units," the Yumi clone rattled on.

Ulrich grabbed the clone's wrist and began to pull it away from the gates of the school. There was no way he was going to sneak to one of the entrances on the grounds when they were running the risk of being stopped. The sooner Aelita modified the stupid clone's intelligence, the better.

"Where are we going?" the clone asked.

"To the Factory."

"Oh. Okay. Did you also know that quasars emit more energy than 100 giant galaxies?"

"... what the heck is a quasar?"